Walton
once remarked in the early 1930s, when working on his First
Symphony, that he wanted to produce a work that would “knock
Bax off his pedestal”, attesting to the fact that Bax the
symphonist was much better known then than he is now. In
fact, three of Bax’s symphonies received their premieres
in the USA, demonstrating that their popularity was not limited
to Britain. Yet now almost the entire Bax canon has been
forgotten, excepting the tone poem, Tintagel, partly
due to the general neglect of English music, but also possibly
to the fact that the symphonies are quite difficult to get
to grips with and require some determination and repeated
listening.

The
Sixth Symphony is a powerful and elusive work. Listen to
the grinding bass at the beginning of the first movement
and you will get a good idea of what’s in store. The composition
was completed in Morar on the North West Coast of Scotland
- a popular place for Bax to compose - and the dark, haunting
and sometimes malevolent beauty of that West coast is reflected
in the undulating power and chromaticism of the first and
third movements in particular. Although Del Mar makes a curiously
slow, laboured and rather purposeless start to the movement
he gets going by the middle and ends with a really strident
coda. However, it is all rather flat in comparison with the
magnificent, full-blooded performances by the London Philharmonic
under Thomson (CHAN 8586, recorded 1988) and the RSNO under
Lloyd-Jones for Naxos (8.557144, recorded 2002).

The
second movement begins with a series of dense, shifting chords
with a Delian echo in the transience, subtlety and seamlessness
of the modulations. Del Mar was one of the great Delius interpreters
and he is truly at home in this movement. There follows a
characteristically Baxian tune on the oboe which wistfully
insinuates itself into the layers of music. Again I feel
that both Lloyd-Jones and Thomson have an even greater feel
for the instrumental line and the way it waxes and wanes,
never truly settling down. As with all Bax’s slow movements
there is an inevitable build-up to a big climax, this time
punctuated by interjections in the bass and timpani. But,
alas, the climax, the balance and the sound are much more
impressive under Thomson and Lloyd-Jones.

Again,
at the beginning of the third movement, Thomson captures
the haunting mode better than Del Mar, who is just a little
too matter-of-fact for my liking. Yet Del Mar portrays well
the poignant and resigned nostalgia and the undulating crescendos
and diminuendos. When Thomson recorded the 6th with
the LPO, he had already recorded 4 of the symphonies, although
the 4th was with the Ulster Orchestra. The LPO
certainly have a greater innate feel and understanding than
the NPO for the way Bax writes for the orchestra. However,
Del Mar’s performance really comes alive in the third movement
and the big climax towards the end is truly wonderful. It
is said by some to be one of the greatest sustained climaxes
in a 20th century symphony and one can see why!
As in many of Bax’s symphonies the coda is restrained and
elegiac, here beautifully captured by Del Mar. It is worth
noting that both Lloyd-Jones and Handley are considerably
quicker overall: about 35 minutes versus 39 minutes for the
symphony.

If
purchasing the complete set of Bax symphonies, one cannot
beat the overall performances of Handley and the BBC Phil.
However, if it is just the 6th you are after then
I would unhesitatingly choose the performance by the RSNO
under Lloyd-Jones on Naxos. Even for one familiar with the
work it proved a revelation and persuaded me that here was
yet another neglected English symphony to add to the already
long and ever-burgeoning list.

The
Lyrita disc has the benefit of including several rarely heard
works. The Irish Landscape - also to be found on an
old EMI recording with Jeffrey Tate - is a lush and romantic
work written in 1912-13, with a heavy dose of Irish nostalgia.
It is followed by the witty Rogue’s Comedy Overture and
the quirky Overture to Adventure - which appears on
Bostock’s version of Bax’s Sixth Symphony on the ClassicO
label - both also written in Morar. The disc concludes with
the Overture: Work in Progress, a jolly response to
Walter Legge’s commission for five British composers to write
a short work for “Symphony Concerts for War Workers”.

This
disc would be of interest to Bax enthusiasts for these last
four works alone – the Symphony, whilst good, cannot be said
to be the best on the market.

Em Marshall

A different opinion offered by John Quinn ...

It
was through this recording and Lyrita’s other Bax symphony
LPs that I first came to know Bax’s rich music. As this recording
enters the CD lists, there are no fewer than three complete
cycles available, a state of affairs that could scarcely have
been dreamt of when Lyrita did their pioneering work. However,
it seems to me that, notwithstanding the comparative plethora
of other choices, this Del Mar recording of the mighty Sixth
can more than hold its head up high.

I
was interested to look at the timings of this and the other
available versions. Del Mar takes 39:32 and the Bryden Thomson
Chandos recording runs for 39:37. However, the two more recent
versions take appreciably less time. David Lloyd-Jones (Naxos)
clocks in at 35:47 while the performance in Vernon Handley’s
acclaimed Chandos cycle takes 35:33. Is this coincidence or
does it indicate that the conductors of more recent recordings,
that are now part of a performance tradition rather than pioneering
issues, feel emboldened to be less expansive?

The
first thing to say about this Del Mar account is that the sound
is quite marvellous. The recording wears its years extremely
lightly. Perhaps the orchestra could have been placed at a
slightly greater distance from the microphones but that’s a
minor matter. The recording is wonderfully detailed and both
the quiet passages and the huge Baxian climaxes are thrillingly
reported. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two earliest
recordings here were made by noted Decca engineers of the day.
The symphony was engineered by Gordon Parry and Kenneth Wilkinson
was responsible for the Irish Landscape recording. Just
as an aside it was these two gentlemen who engineered for Decca
the 1955 Keilberth/Testament ‘Ring’ cycle with such
impressive results.

Del
Mar has the full measure of the symphony – what a fine conductor
he was! In the booklet that accompanies his Chandos cycle Vernon
Handley quotes, Peter Pirie, Lyrita’s annotator for the symphony,
saying of this work that “It tears up the earth by its roots.” That’s
a superb phrase that adroitly conveys the often brazen energy
of the piece. Del Mar’s right on top of that aspect, whether
he’s imparting menace to the opening bass ostinato or fire
to the allegro con fuoco that follows. Even when Bax
relaxes a little for the second subject of the first movement
the music is still restless. Throughout this movement Del Mar
invests the music with power and dramatic bite.

The
second movement brings us Bax, the Celtic dreamer. However,
as Peter Pirie says in his note, it’s a “troubled dream”. Del
Mar obtains some very sensitive, atmospheric playing. The atmosphere
is carried over into the start of the third movement, which
is almost as long as its two predecessors combined. This finale
is ushered in by a long, unaccompanied clarinet solo, masterfully
played, which is highly suggestive of the Sibelius First. In
Del Mar’s hands this whole introduction is pregnant with atmosphere
and tension. The scherzo, into which Bax moves seamlessly,
is all dash and energy though the central trio is mainly delicate
and ruminative. Eventually Bax builds to a massive climax before
a long-drawn, evocative epilogue, which shows us the composer
at his most haunting.

Several commentators have
suggested that the Sixth was the work in which Bax exorcised
his symphonic demons, paving the way for the happier Seventh.
Certainly Norman Del Mar proves to be a most effective exorcist
for his account of the whole work is gripping and convincing.
Not the least of his triumphs is to obtain from the New Philharmonia
playing of such bite, assurance and conviction. In 1966 this
must have been very unfamiliar fare to the players. Del Mar
encourages them to deliver it almost as if it were a repertoire
piece.

The
fill-ups show us different aspects of Bax and all are valuable. Irish
Landscape is a passionate, romantic piece that is scored
for strings and harp. Handley does it very well and the piece
seems more substantial than the 7:28 running time. The three
overtures represent Bax in genial mode. He himself described Rogue’s
Comedy Overture as “rather rampagious” [sic] It’s
an enjoyable piece with a delightful, engaging central section.
In view of my comment above about the timings for the respective
recordings of the symphony it’s worth noting that Handley included
a performance of this selfsame overture in his set of the symphonies
for Chandos. Comparing that 2003 recording with the 1994 Lyrita
version, the actual playing times of Handley’s readings are
10:45 (Lyrita) and 9:55 (Chandos.) The Lyrita performance is
good but the Chandos traversal is more unbuttoned and in the
aforementioned central section there’s a perkiness and better
pointing in the Chandos performance.

Handley
is successful in the other two overtures as well. Work in
Progress, a wartime commission by Walter Legge for ENSA,is
especially extrovert. I wonder how many listeners, when it
first appeared, would have caught the sardonic allusion to Deutschland über
Alles? I’m not sure I would have done without Graham Parlett’s
good notes.

This
is a fine collection, in which the performance of the symphony
stands out in particular. No matter which complete Bax symphony
cycle you may have in your collection this superb Del Mar account
is a necessary adjunct

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